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I'm 34 and I seem to reinvent myself drastically every 7 years or so, and this includes politics. My views on life the universe and everything stem both from d

I'm 34 and I seem to reinvent myself drastically every 7 years or so, and this includes politics. My views on life the universe and everything stem both from direct experience and books - lots and lots of books. At 15 I was apolitical, and a default conservative, but while I would merrily assign myself these labels my actions spoke very differently. At 22 I was a libertarian/objectivist zealot, and still an authoritarian, just a different source of authority. By 26 I had moved to classical liberalism with leftist leanings - and had become vehemently and vocally antiauthoritarian in a political rather than "fuck you, dad" manner. At this point I just sit on the sidelines and laugh at the insane symbol manipulation that seems to be the primary occupation of humans. The thing is, while my views and degrees of misanthropy and cynicism have ebbed and flowed over the years, a constant thread can be traced back throughout - a nascent distrust of authority which grew into a rejection of all authority - and a pattern of thinking that makes people look at me cock-eyed, as I think and say things which others consider irregular. Always have. The only thing that has changed is that I've continued to load more and more information into the system, which has given me more to work with, more precise identifiers, a more nuanced understanding of ape-men and their activities. So - the crux is that while I rebrand myself every seven years or so, the only thing that's actually changing is the labels, the assignation - I still identify strongly with eleven year old me - although I do now prefer Trek to Wars.

narrowrail 10y ago
Regarding labels, whether one believes humans are innately good or evil I have found more telling than the more popular labels people like to assign to themselves.
- madaxe_again 10y ago
  I actually reject the concepts of good and evil, and instead see the axis as selfish/altruistic - and I think humans are generally selfish.
  - barrkel 10y ago
    I think altruism is selfish. That is, I think people seek pleasurable feelings through altruistic acts. Sometimes the feelings come from the act itself, of having done a good thing. More usually, it comes from other people, whether it's the gratitude of those to whom the thing has been done, or the admiration of those who observed the act, or - probably the most dubious - from feeling morally superior to other people. Feeling morally superior can lead to moral self-licencing, whereupon you can feel free to act more selfishly or immorally because of a previous morally virtuous or selfless / altruistic act. My axis for judgement would be closer to fair vs unfair, from a Rawlsian veil of ignorance perspective, which lends the notion of fairness a wider social dimension rather than restricting it to the fairness of individual acts, and enables more consequentialist reasoning for the outcomes of universal rules, rather than deontological reasoning.
    - chimprich 10y ago
      I think that's a very limited, not to mention deeply cynical, viewpoint. You're discounting the possibility that someone may perform an altruistic act for logical reasons - for example, because they have calculated the cost of the act they are performing is small to them but of great benefit to the other person, or have decided from a dispassionate perspective that living in a better world is better for everyone and a good reason to perform altruistic acts occasionally. Even if we only consider altruistic acts that are performed because of emotion, I think it is far more common for acts to be performed to avoid negative emotions such as guilt or empathetic pain.
    - madaxe_again 10y ago
      I actually agre with you but wasn't going to go there - everything is fundamentally a selfish act, as self gratification is the motivator. Even apparently selfless acts are selfishly motivated - if irrationally so - if I jump in front of this bullet I'll be a hero. Fair vs unfair works too, and to peel back Kant's rehash of the golden rule, "do as you would be done by" appears to still be the best maxim we have come up with.
tunap 10y ago
I have noted too that I have a 7 year cycle. Work objectives, social circles and wildly altering life events(illness & injury) have altered my future objectives every 7 or so. My idealistic outlook has been eroded through experience and my 45yo values are almost 180° from what young & hungry me thought was most important(or, programmed through combo of pop media, peer pressure & raging hormones). The one thing that hasn't changed is my politics: PoliSci's pigeon-holing me into one club or the other never felt right and regardless which candidates win, their un/semi/fully-fulfilled promises reveal their true direct impact upon my life(approaching 0%). Life keeps progressing despite the distracting circus show's results for better & worse. I wish 11yo me had discovered Clarke & Sagan before Gene & George, but as they say: that's life.

narrowrail 10y ago

Regarding labels, whether one believes humans are innately good or evil I have found more telling than the more popular labels people like to assign to themselves.

madaxe_again 10y ago
I actually reject the concepts of good and evil, and instead see the axis as selfish/altruistic - and I think humans are generally selfish.
- barrkel 10y ago
  I think altruism is selfish. That is, I think people seek pleasurable feelings through altruistic acts. Sometimes the feelings come from the act itself, of having done a good thing. More usually, it comes from other people, whether it's the gratitude of those to whom the thing has been done, or the admiration of those who observed the act, or - probably the most dubious - from feeling morally superior to other people. Feeling morally superior can lead to moral self-licencing, whereupon you can feel free to act more selfishly or immorally because of a previous morally virtuous or selfless / altruistic act. My axis for judgement would be closer to fair vs unfair, from a Rawlsian veil of ignorance perspective, which lends the notion of fairness a wider social dimension rather than restricting it to the fairness of individual acts, and enables more consequentialist reasoning for the outcomes of universal rules, rather than deontological reasoning.
  - chimprich 10y ago
    I think that's a very limited, not to mention deeply cynical, viewpoint. You're discounting the possibility that someone may perform an altruistic act for logical reasons - for example, because they have calculated the cost of the act they are performing is small to them but of great benefit to the other person, or have decided from a dispassionate perspective that living in a better world is better for everyone and a good reason to perform altruistic acts occasionally. Even if we only consider altruistic acts that are performed because of emotion, I think it is far more common for acts to be performed to avoid negative emotions such as guilt or empathetic pain.
  - madaxe_again 10y ago
    I actually agre with you but wasn't going to go there - everything is fundamentally a selfish act, as self gratification is the motivator. Even apparently selfless acts are selfishly motivated - if irrationally so - if I jump in front of this bullet I'll be a hero. Fair vs unfair works too, and to peel back Kant's rehash of the golden rule, "do as you would be done by" appears to still be the best maxim we have come up with.

tunap 10y ago

I have noted too that I have a 7 year cycle. Work objectives, social circles and wildly altering life events(illness & injury) have altered my future objectives every 7 or so. My idealistic outlook has been eroded through experience and my 45yo values are almost 180° from what young & hungry me thought was most important(or, programmed through combo of pop media, peer pressure & raging hormones). The one thing that hasn't changed is my politics: PoliSci's pigeon-holing me into one club or the other never felt right and regardless which candidates win, their un/semi/fully-fulfilled promises reveal their true direct impact upon my life(approaching 0%). Life keeps progressing despite the distracting circus show's results for better & worse. I wish 11yo me had discovered Clarke & Sagan before Gene & George, but as they say: that's life.